“It’s not that anything particularly notable has happened in the past month or the past week,” said Richard Volpe, a research economist for the food economics division of the USDA. “We are in a long-term sustained inflation for beef and veal prices.”

John Barone, commodities analyst at Market Vision Inc. said the inflation of beef prices is likely to continue through 2016 or possibly 2017.

Until the rise in inflation subsides, restaurants will be forced to engineer and market menus with less beef, cheaper cuts and be more vigilant in making the best deals with suppliers, according to NRN.